Description

TOWCESTER MOAT LANE SP6948 (South side) 13/126 Church of St. Lawrence 17/05/60

GV I

Church. C13, C14, C15. Restored 1835-6, and 1883 by J.L. Pearson. Nave roof of 1958. Chancel, vestry, north and south chancel chapels, nave, north and south aisles, south porch and west tower. Coursed limestone and ironstone rubble and coursed squared limestone, lead roofs. 5-bay chancel has 5-light Perpendicular east window, 3-light Decorated windows north and south with curvilinear tracery and 3-light clerestory windows with cinquefoil-headed lights and 4-centred heads. Rectangular crypt windows to north-east and south-east with chamfered stone surrounds. Vestry to north has chamfered Tudor-arched north door and 2-light chamfered mullion window to right with cut spandrels. Chancel chapels continue aisles and overlap chancel. North chapel has 3-light east window with simple C18 or early C19 tracery with crown glass quarries, and 3-light windows to north with cinquefoil-headed lights and 4-centred heads. South chapel has 4-light east window with Tudor-arched head, wide outer cinquefoil-headed ogee-arched lights and inner pointed trefoil-headed lights. Windows to south, are similar to those to north of north chapel. Similar windows to aisles, except for 2-light straight-headed window to west of south porch. North aisle has chamfered pointed arched door to west in wider part-blocked doorway. Projecting stair turret to former gallery of rood screen between north aisle and chancel chapel. Many-moulded south door with hood mould in south porch, which has doorway with hollow chamfer and sunk quadrant inner moulding and hood mould and 2-light Decorated windows north and south with pointed trefoil-headed lights and 4-centred heads. Tall 3-stage west tower has many-moulded west doorway with fleurons to deep hollow-chamfered surround with ogee-arched hood mould within panelled recess with moulded straight-headed surround; old double-leaf studded doors. 3-light Perpendicular window above. Walling at this level banded with limestone. Small 2-light window to south of middle stage with cinquefoil-headed lights. 2-light bell-chamber openings. Diagonal buttresses and battlemented parapet. Plain stone-coped parapets to rest of church. Chancel has set-back buttresses. Offset buttresses to south aisle and chapel and to south-west angle of south aisle. All windows except those to crypt have hood moulds. Interior: chancel has C17 tie-beam trusses and purlins. Sanctuary raised over stone-vaulted crypt with chamfered ribs and ridge ribs and slender square piers without capitals; tomb recess to east and aumbry to north, 2-bay arcades between chancel and chapels with double-chamfered arches; octagonal pier to north, circular pier to south with 4 circular shafts in diagonals. Mid C19 chancel arch incorporates two Romanesque shafts, that to north circular with lozenge decoration, that to south octagonal with zig-zag ornament; south chancel chapel has wide ogee-arched niche between south windows with cinquefoiled head and crocketed hood mould, and Pelican in her Piety painted on back wall and small image bracket just below sill. Double-chamfered arch to south aisle, innermost on carved figure corbels. Nave has 4-bay arcades with octagonal piers, polygonal responds and double-chamfered arches; 3 re-used C13 capitals, one with waterleaf decoration. Triple-chamfered tower arch, innermost on polygonal responds. Octagonal font with panelled bowl on crocketed nodding ogee arches. Fragments of C15 stained glass in east window of south chapel including arms of Archdeacon Sponne from Talbot Inn. East window of 1885, other C19 stained glass windows to south aisle. Monuments: table tomb of William Sponne, a chaplain of Henry VI, rector of Towcester and archdeacon of Norfolk, d.1448, with restored effigy and cadaver below. Alabaster wall monument to Jerome Farmore d.1602 with small kneeling figures facing each other at prayer desk in scalloped niches, flanked by Corinthian colonettes. Marble wall monument to Mary Hastings d.1686 with Corinthian columns supporting volutes either side of urn. Stone wall monument to Mary Hodges d.1759 with broken segmental pediment framing urn and signed Jn. Middleton. Veined marble mid C18 wall monument to William Benson with cherubs' heads and urn finial. (Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.433; Kelly's Directory for Northamptonshire, 1928).

Listing NGR: SP6941048704

External Links

• Wikidata Q17527255

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Recommended Books

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
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  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
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  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas